Man guilty of body-in-acid and fire murder



A MELBOURNE man has been found guilty of shooting a man 10 times, setting his body on fire and then putting parts of it in a tub of acid.


Leonard Borg, 28, didn’t react today as the jury foreman announced he was guilty of murdering Peter Rule, 56, who disappeared from his Meadow Heights home in November 2009.

Borg killed Mr Rule and then dismembered and disposed of his body to avoid detection, the Victorian Supreme Court was told during his trial.

Prosecutors said Borg murdered Mr Rule because he believed Mr Rule had told police about his drug crop.

As the verdict was delivered a member of Mr Rule’s family screamed.

Outside court, Mark Rule said the circumstances of his brother’s death were distressing.

“We know he was no angel, but he was our brother, we loved him, we miss him greatly,” he said.

“What a way to go, can you imagine that?”

Prosecutor Mark Gibson told the jury Borg took Mr Rule to a factory in Campbellfield and shot him 10 times from close range with a .22 calibre semi-automatic rifle.

Mr Rule’s body was taken to another factory in Thomastown where it was burnt in a 44-gallon drum.

Pieces of Mr Rule’s body were later placed in a tub of hydrochloric acid, the court heard.

Mr Gibson said the remains were then taken by Borg and an accomplice to the Great Ocean Road. Some was disposed of in scrubland, while the contents of the acid tub were thrown into the ocean near Lorne.

Police later found remains at the Aireys Inlet location, the court heard.

Borg’s barrister Carmen Randazzo SC had argued jurors would not be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Borg killed Mr Rule.

“There is good reason why you won’t be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt – because he didn’t do it,” she told the trial.

After a seven-week trial and three days’ deliberation the jury disagreed and found Borg guilty of murdering Mr Rule.

A pre-sentence hearing will be held on a date to be fixed.
 

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